(Press Unit in the Office of the Prime Minister) – Thirty senior security officers and other senior personnel from various government agencies are benefiting from a two-week training course that seeks to equip them with competencies in critically evaluating the prevailing logics of national security and developing their perspectives on effective strategy planning in crises.

This is being done through a National Security and Crisis Management Course which is being facilitated by lecturers from Galilee International Management Institute out of Israel from today, Monday, April 23, to Friday, May 4, at the Police Training School.

The course participants are drawn from the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force, the St. Kitts and Nevis Defence Force, Her Majesty’s Prison, Customs and Excise Department, the St. Kitts and Nevis Fire and Rescue Services, Ministry of Tourism, St. Christopher Air and Sea Ports Authority (SCASPA), the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the Ministry of Education.

Addressing the opening ceremony earlier today, Prime Minister and Minister of National Security, Dr. the Honourable Timothy Harris, described the course as a comprehensive training programme that will prepare senior government personnel to respond to evolving global threats.

Prime Minister Harris stated, “Given the fact that at times we think we are far removed from the threats that are happening in the Middle East for example, in the United States for example–the truth is the world has shrunk and it has become so much smaller. Anything that can happen in Israel can happen here [and] anything that can happen in the United States of America can also happen here. That is why we have to stay ahead of what is happening.”

The National Security Minister implored the course participants to take seriously the lessons and information that will be shared by the lecturers from Galilee International Management Institute, which has over 30 years of experience in designing and implementing advanced leadership management training programmes.

Prime Minister Harris added, “I hope that the instructions given will be given the serious reflection and appropriate implementation in your work so that at the end of it the country’s standard of security…would have been tremendously enhanced and improved as a result of your participation.”

This is the second time within a matter of months that the Ministry of National Security in St. Kitts and Nevis has collaborated with the Galilee International Management Institute.

In December 2017, four officers representing Her Majesty’s Prison, the Police Force, the Customs Department and SKNDF completed three weeks of training at the institute’s headquarters in northern Israel.